


The Foreman's Son.

by Sirovaticus



Series: OLVN: Olivine [2]
Category: JPDE (referenced), RWBY
Genre: Gen, Jacques Schnee being an asshole, Prologue, Random Afrikaans-inspired flavor, tragic backstory
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:13:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22397638
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sirovaticus/pseuds/Sirovaticus
Summary: Vorkneh Menelik was a little boy when the SDC airship came to his village.What happened next would set his journey to Beacon Academy into Motion
Series: OLVN: Olivine [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1265606
Comments: 2
Kudos: 1





	1. The Airship

**Author's Note:**

> So, after a long break and a short bit of thinking, the OLVN series will have the rest of its prologue fics in the (by my standards) near future, and then their journey through Beacon will be in a unified story with the capability to shift between the team's points of view. 
> 
> We start with Vorkneh, whose prologue starts off even before Lazuryt's.

Lobengula Town, Southern Sanus Jungles. 12 years before Volume 1:

A light rain descended on the village, and distant thunder boomed from the mountains.

But that didn’t stop a little boy, clad in a yellow raincoat, from running around with a toy plane in his hand, imagining the little Atlesian Airship flying through the sky.

What he didn’t expect was to look up and see that very type of ship fly through the air. The exact same one…

...except with a snowflake painted on its fuselage…

...and it was heading for the mines.

\---

Ivory Dust Mine #3, Shaft 8. 2 minutes earlier:

“Did’ya hear?” asked Ras. “MZ took his family and moved to Vale. Finally saved up enough.” 

“You know, My sis moved to Mistral about 7 years back or so…” Sustrai responded. “...Never heard from her again. I prefer life here. It’s rough, sure. But honest. And simpler.”

“Aye, but Peri had a knack for findin’ trouble even here, and what d’you have to compare this life to, anyway?” Ras responded. “Oi, Gneis! You’re a Kingdommer! What’s it like?”

“Hey, I might be an uitlander, but I’m a Vakjuaner, not a Valesian....but Vale is supposed to be quite safe, I think. Mistral though...heaps of trouble to find there. Almost as much as Vacuo!”

“But Vacuo even can’t be that bad, right? I mean, the Big Boss runs things from there.” Ras reasoned.

Gneis replied. “Ja, but the chaos is to his advantage. Any more organized of a kingdom and the ol’ white-haired _windgat_ would be able to find some bureaucratic way to screw him, or, you know, screw him faster than he’s doing n-.”

“Oi, foreman on deck!” Sustrai interjected in a harsh yet quiet voice.

The trio turned to see a dark giant of a man approaching. A hammer in his hand , and an obsolete data-pad in the other, with a headset-hardhat combo painted bright red. His Jumpsuit read “Y.H Menelik” on the right breast pocket.

“Gentlemen. How goes the progress of extracting the giant Fire core you found.” 

“It’s a stubborn one, sir!” Sustrai responded. “Anything less than the pyrob’ drills are deforming way too fast in the heat to make decent progress. And even those are actually starting to wear down, with the hardness of the rock.” 

“Dammit! And those little shits are expensive.” Yohani noted. “You should move on to speed up Shaft 7’s work for now, we need to make quota befor-”

Yohani was interrupted by a voice in his headset. He listened momentarily, then his eyes widened.

“I...I’ll be up right away.”

“....On second thought, I need you boys to come topside with me right now. Bring your hand tools…”

“...and put mean looks on your faces.”


	2. Hostile Takeover

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New management has acquired the Ivory Dust Corporation. But the SDC quickly finds that Yohani H. Menelik and his miners aren't so easily manipulated as what they are used to.

“Mr. Menelik, what’s going on? Grimm?” Ras asked

“No...not yet...hopefully not at all. But it seems we have visitors of an even more vicious kind.”

“ _De windgat._ ” Gneis muttered to himself.

“Bingo.” Yohani replied curtly.  
\---

The young boy slowly plodded his way through the cycads, strelitzia, and ferns that grew on the approach to the mines, hoping to see the airship up close. Considering that maybe he himself should not be seen, he shed his bright yellow raincoat as he approached a place from which he could see the landing site.

\---

When the quartet of workers reached the mouth of the mine, Yohani gathered all the men in the area coming up or going down before emerging to find a lanky, well-groomed and sideburned man in a white suit and half-a-dozen mercenaries with Atlesian milsurp rifles from the last generation of tech.

\---

When the boy reached his overlook, he saw that his father and the other miners were standing at the entrance, talking to the guys who had landed.

...who had guns.  
\---

The man in the suit spoke. “Good day, workers. My name is Cirrus Rhodes, and I represent the Schnee Dust Company in Vacuo and it’s broader region. I am here to inform you that this mine, its attached village, and all of your equipment is, as of 2 o’clock this morning, the property of the SDC. We are here to enroll you in new employment contracts for the continuation of this fine operat-.” 

“Hold up!” Yohani interjected, stepping forth from the crowd. “First of all, even the dumbest man in my mine knows Mr. Ivory would never sell to the likes of you or your boss, Mr. Rhodes. Secondly, Our village was never company property. It’s ours, and has been for 7 generations of my family. Longer still for others.”

Rhodes had a devious smile on his face as he drew a large scroll and opened a document file. “As you will see, we have deeds to all of it. Check for yourself.” He said as he extended the scroll to Yohani.

Yohani began scrolling through the file. With each line he struggled more not to start choking the executive on the spot.  
Forged documents claiming the area as uninhabited land. Corrupt officials approving its sale, and the company…

...the company’s bill of sale had _Mrs._ Ivory’s signature on it.

Gritting his teeth, Yohani continued. 

“And these contracts you expect us to sign?”  
Rhodes smiled and began to search

“Not mine. The one for my men.”

Hesitantly, smile now gone, the executive complied. 

The contract was as disgusting as the other documents. A 60% cut in gross income, fees for living in their own village. Lifetime non-competition clauses. It was shameless and bald-faced slavery. A man would work himself to death in a year trying to feed a family of five. Let alone trying to save enough to leave. 

So Yohani shattered the scroll in his hands and threw it at the executive’s feet, before turning to the mercenaries.

“Right then, start shooting.”

Rhodes balked “I beg your pardon!”

\---

The boy, meanwhile was terrified, nearly in tears at the thought of these men killing his father and the fathers of his friends.  
\---

“You’ll kill about half of us, sure, but between numbers and a few aura users the rest of us will beat your lot senseless. After that, we can rig the mine to blow, gather our families and be on our way before anyone comes looking for you. Grimm or no, about the same number of us will be dead in 5 years out there as if we take your deal, so I reckon we might as well be free in the meantime.”

“...”

“Do I have to spell it out for you? Get off our land, pretty-boy!”

The executive's face contorted briefly in unbridled rage, before settling, and then returning to its smarmy smirk.

“When I come back, next week, I expect 200 tons of raw dust ready to ship. After that, your men’s employment will begin...with you or without you.” 

With that, Rhodes climbed aboard his airship and left without his mercenaries. 2 more airships arrived in the village, dropping off a dozen more to start patrolling around the edges of the community, looking in as much as looking out.

Yohani then turned to Sustrai. “Get everyone out of the mines. No one digs up another crystal ‘til this is sorted.”

Suddenly, a cry came from the bush-line.

"Dad!"

Yohani turned

"Vorkneh!?"


End file.
